Happy Valentine's Day

At last, here are the pictures I promised last week. Nothing big is going on, and it's chilly outside, so these are all of Nora playing in the house. We have been going to a storytime program at the library that she seems to like, but no photos from that. She helps me with the shopping, and when she can get her hands on a "baby cart" at the market, I noticed her practice with the toy shopping cart has really paid off. It used to be like shopping with a tiny drunk person since she was more interested in watching the little shopping cart move rather than watching out for people/ displays in the store.

We're getting Nora's "Big Girl" room ready and hoping to have her practice sleeping in the bed (generously lent to us by Grandma and Grandpa Longton!) in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, laying in the bed is one of her favorite activities:

In the vein of working on all things "big girl," we're planting the seeds of potty training, and to support her practicing hand-washing, I bought that Kandoo foaming soap for kids. She was totally enamored with the "two soaps," carried them all around the grocery store, wouldn't let me put them on the belt in the checkout lane (the cashier was nice enough to scan them quickly and give them straight back to Nora), and she played with them all day yesterday (ALL DAY). The best, though -- she asked me to take a picture of herself with the soaps:

We've been brushing her teeth for a long time, but recently started having her practice "rinsing" and spitting afterwards. If she just doesn't swallow the water and spits it back out (or lets it dribble back out of her mouth, which is the more accurate description), it's a good session. Needless to say, we'll be using the fluoride-free toothpaste (swallow-safe) for the forseeable future. This is her making the "monster teeth" face so I can scrub the fronts of her teeth.

Backwards cowboy hat:

Fork mustache:

We're reading lots of books about new babies coming home, and so far that's going well... Nora likes the stories and also likes babies. I think that will translate into 1.7% less resistance to a new baby in the house. The baby continues to grow well and we're scheduled for our big ultrasound a week from tomorrow. If we get any good pictures, we'll post them on the blog.

Thanks again for checking in!
Love,

Sarah, Brett & Nora

PS: We're already preparing to move onto the next holiday... Brett showed Nora a leprechaun today and taught her the word. Somehow, though, she is pronouncing it "SAH-puh-KAH-KAHN" instead. Pretty funny.

Happy Valentine's Day!!